The present invention relates to a method of controlling a processing apparatus, and a processing apparatus.
For example, in a so-called photoresist processing step in a semiconductor manufacturing process, a target processing substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (to be referred to as a "wafer" hereinafter) is cleaned, its surface is coated with a resist solution to form a resist film, and the substrate is exposed with a predetermined pattern and then developed by a developing solution. The series of processes are performed using a single coating/developing system in which processing apparatuses for respectively processing wafers one by one are collected. In this coating/developing system, a convey means holding a wafer stops in front of the load/unload port of a predetermined processing apparatus. After various movable members on the processing apparatus side perform predetermined operations, the convey means loads the wafer in the apparatus, places it on a predetermined table, and then retreats from the apparatus.
The predetermined operations of the movable members include opening/closing of a shutter in loading/unloading and vertical movement of an elevating pin in placing a wafer in a heating apparatus, vertical movement of a chamber that defines a closed space in an adhesion apparatus, and opening/closing of a shutter and movement of a nozzle arm in a cleaning apparatus and a resist solution coating apparatus. After confirming these operations, the wafer is loaded in the apparatus, and subjected to a predetermined process. Upon completion of the process, the respective operations are executed again to unload the wafer from the apparatus.
The operation of a conventional movable member will be described in accordance with an operation flow. For example, the operation of support pins 103 which appear from a table 102 in a heating apparatus 101 like the one shown in FIG. 1 is performed by the following procedure in accordance with a flow as shown in FIG. 2.
When a controller 104 instructs the support pins 103 to move up (step S101), a pin-up signal is output (step S102). A pin-up sensor 105 detects whether the support pins 103 actually moved up (step S103). If YES in step S103, the predetermined upward operation is complete (step S104), and a wafer is loaded in the apparatus, and subjected to predetermined heating.
If NO in step S103, the flow waits for 5 sec (step S105). After the lapse of 5 sec without detecting upward movement of the support pins 103, an error signal is output (step S106). When the error signal is output, all apparatuses in the system including the heating apparatus 101 are stopped. In this case, the wafer associated with this error is normally treated as a defective.